大乘起信論義記 2.136

2.136

Question: How can the four marks be simultaneous? If they are simultaneous, why did the previous text speak of awakening having a before and after? Answer: This was already distinguished above: that is, it is merely the four marks transmigrating within the single dreaming mind; persons residing in the dream consider them to have before and after, and each awakens partially according to the shallowness or depth of their intellectual power. However, the great awakened ones know that the four marks of the dream are merely the single pure mind, having no substantial nature by which before and after could be distinguished; hence it says 'simultaneously none of them stands independently' and so forth. Thus the Mahāyānasaṃgraha says: 'Residing in a dream, one thinks years have passed; on waking, it is but an instant. Therefore, although the time is immeasurable, it is subsumed in a single kṣaṇa.' Here, 'a single kṣaṇa' means thoughtlessness. The Laṅkāvatāra says: 'All dharmas do not arise: this is the meaning of kṣaṇa that I preach. In the initial arising there is cessation; this is not preached for fools.' The explanation says: Because kṣaṇika transmigration must be without self-nature, and being without self-nature it is precisely non-arising; if it were not non-arising, it would not transmigrate. Therefore, only one who tallies with non-arising sees the kṣaṇa. Moreover, in the Vimalakīrtinirdeśasūtra it says: 'Non-arising and non-ceasing is the meaning of impermanence' and so forth. The Laṅkāvatāra also says: 'The seven consciousnesses do not transmigrate, do not experience suffering and pleasure, and are not the cause of nirvāṇa. The tathāgatagarbha experiences suffering and pleasure; together with the cause, it either arises or ceases.' The intention of these sūtras is to explain that the true mind, following the flow, produces defiled and pure dharmas and so forth. Defiled and pure dharmas originally have no intrinsic nature; having no intrinsic nature, they are merely the single true mind. Therefore, the four marks are themselves the single true mind, and non-enlightenment is identical with innate enlightenment; hence it is said, 'they are originally equal and identical to the One Enlightenment.'